Telecommunications provider takes major step towards UAE digital infrastructure ambitions of Announced a strategic partnership to land and invest in the Singapore-India-Gulf (SING) submarine cable system, a next-generation submarine fiber network connecting the Middle East to South and Southeast Asia. The deal strengthens the UAE’s role as a regional data hub and is poised to support future digital growth, artificial intelligence workloads, cloud services and global connectivity.
What is the SING submarine cable system?
The SING (Singapore-India-Gulf) Cable is a planned high-capacity submarine fiber optic network designed to create a direct east-west digital corridor connecting six strategic landing points:
- Kalba, UAE (UAE landing point)
- muscat,
Oman - mumbai and chennai india
- Kedah,
Malaysia Singapore
The system is designed to provide high-capacity, low-latency connectivity and enhance network resiliency by diversifying data routing beyond traditional paths such as the Red Sea Corridor. It will play a key role in supporting growing global bandwidth demands driven by cloud computing, streaming media, e-commerce and real-time digital services.
Role and strategic importance of UAE Du
Under the new partnership, du, one of the UAE’s leading telecommunications and digital services providers, will host SING cables at its Kalba cable landing station and participate financially in its deployment. This means that once completed, the system will be physically connected to the UAE’s digital ecosystem, enabling faster and more resilient connections between the Gulf and Asia.
Dubai-based telecoms operator du has joined the Singapore-India-Gulf submarine cable system and announced a partnership with Cyprus’ Datawave Networks to lay next-generation cables in the United Arab Emirates.
Karim Benkirane, chief commercial officer at du, said the project will “strengthen the UAE’s role as a global hub for data, cloud and artificial intelligence” by delivering the connectivity scale, performance and reliability required by hyperscalers, technology innovators and enterprise customers.
Why UAE’s investment in Singapore-India-Gulf cable is crucial for global connectivity
The SING submarine cable is part of a wider renaissance in subsea infrastructure around the world. Projects such as SEA-ME-WE 6, another major submarine cable underway between Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe, highlight the growing need for redundancy, capacity and network reliability. In recent years, disruptions to the Red Sea submarine cable, a vital data pipeline, have shown how vulnerable global internet routes are to disruption, highlighting the need for alternative routes like SING to mitigate service impact if certain routes are compromised.
UAE du joins SING submarine cable system to enhance connectivity between Asia and Middle East
By diversifying connectivity pathways, the UAE and its partners aim to ensure stable data routes that underpin everything from enterprise cloud services to consumer streaming and real-time financial systems. The UAE’s investment in SING coincides with a global trend in the deployment of submarine cables. For example, projects such as the SEA-ME-WE 6 system, which connects Southeast Asia and Europe with high capacity, are enhancing global data traffic infrastructure and helping to meet growing demand.
What’s next for SING and Emirates connections?
Although the exact date for the SING cable to be commissioned has not yet been announced, progress on the project has been accelerated following a significant investment from Cerberus Capital Management, resolving long-standing funding challenges and moving the system towards deployment by 2030. Once operational, the SING network is expected to deliver tens of terabits per second of capacity, providing scalable flexibility for future data needs of enterprises, cloud operators, artificial intelligence research initiatives and platforms across continents.
#map Showcasing the undersea cable system vital to the Internet!
Every time we transfer data from a US/International server, the data travels in cables thousands of meters below sea level.
In India, cables are mainly distributed in Mumbai and Chennai pic.twitter.com/efcASAIHsi— Raj Bhagat P #Mapper4Life (@rajbhagatt) August 29, 2020
In addition, major alternative cable initiatives such as the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA)-supported effort on the Trusted India to Southeast Asia route highlight growing international cooperation in building secure, high-performance undersea networks to serve billions of users around the world.This puts the UAE and the wider Gulf region at the forefront of next-generation connectivity infrastructure for global-scale digital services. As the digital economy expands and data traffic grows exponentially, projects such as the Singapore-India-Gulf Submarine Cable System represent critical investments in the future of global interconnection.By partnering with Datawave and investing in SING Cables, du and the UAE are strengthening their role as a strategic gateway between continents, enhancing digital resilience, supporting AI infrastructure and unlocking new opportunities for economic and technological growth.
